I was in the fifth floor lounge of Columbia for an hour. I noted the different study habits of people and what they really did when they came to the longue. While I was in the lounge there was four other people in the room as well, two girls and two guys.

Person 1 (girl)
This person was there before I arrived and was still there when I left. She was doing her math homework. While doing this she did not need complete silence. She was conversing with the other girl in the lounge. She also was able to eat a snack and drink some water. This person was good at multitasking but was still getting work accomplished. You could tell she was not studying for a test because she was still able to be social and was not completely focused.

Person 2 (boy)
This person arrived about fifteen minutes after I got there. He sat in one of the comfortable chairs and was on his laptop the whole time. He was not bothered by noise, which means he was able to do work without it being quiet. This boy seemed to be getting work done. He was still there when I left forty-five minutes later.

Person 3 (girl)
This person arrived about twenty minutes after I got there. She was very distracted and seemed as if she was there to only socialize and not to actually accomplish homework. She kept coming in and out of the lounge and seemed irritated by something. This girl did not seem to distract the other students but it was as if she was a distraction to herself. When I left, all of her stuff was still in the lounge but at that time she was not.

Person 4 (boy)
This person arrived about twenty-five minutes after I first got to the lounge. He sat down and seemed like he really needed to study and concentrate, since the room was not completely silent it seemed as if he couldn’t. He was there for about ten minutes and then left. I assume he left because the girls were being a little noisy and he could not get his work done.

I observed that different people have different study habits. Some can study with noise, while others need it to be completely silent. Some people go to the lounge to do group assignments while others go there to study for a test or to avoid distractions. I learned that some people even just go to the lounges to hangout and socialize. The data I collected suggests to me that college life is different for each student. It’s a matter of how much you put into it. A college student is not going to get anything out of college if they don’t put in effort, whether its for social reasons or school work. From what I observed each person in the lounge seemed to have different priorities. College is what you make of it and is about what is most important to you as an individual.


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